Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
Carl SaganRead
The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote illustrates the dangerous escalation of the nuclear arms race, where both sides are heavily armed and on the brink of destruction.
Carl Sagan's quote uses the metaphor of two enemies standing in gasoline to convey the precariousness and volatility of the nuclear arms race. The matches symbolize the capability for mutual destruction that both parties possess, highlighting the dire consequences of escalating military capabilities without resolving underlying conflicts. The imagery emphasizes that both sides are equally vulnerable and that any spark could lead to catastrophic consequences.
Themes
NuclearArms RaceDangerPeaceDestruction
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about disarmament, one might say, 'As Carl Sagan warned, the nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies in gasoline, and we must find a way to extinguish the flames.'
More from Carl Sagan
All quotes βIn more than one respect, the exploring of the Solar System and homesteading other worlds constitutes the beginning, much more than the end, of history.
Carl SaganRead
How smart does a chimpanzee have to be before killing him constitutes murder?
Carl SaganRead
The hole in the ozone layer is a kind of skywriting. At first it seemed to spell out our continuing complacency before a witch's brew of deadly perils. But perhaps it really tells of a newfound talent to work together to protect the global environment.
Carl SaganRead
There is a reward structure in science that is very interesting: Our highest honors go to those who disprove the findings of the most revered among us. So Einstein is revered not just because he made so many fundamental contributions to science, but because he found an imperfection in the fundamental contribution of Isaac Newton.
Carl SaganRead
The simplest thought, like the concept of the number one, has an elaborate logical underpinning.
Carl SaganRead
Similar quotes
I don't know why I still find it so hard to accept that words are faulty and by their very nature innacurate
Doris LessingRead
The war was won on both sides: by the Vietnamese on the ground, by the Americans in the electronic mental space. And if the one side won an ideological and political victory, the other made Apocalypse Now and that has gone right around the world.
Jean BaudrillardRead
What is human warfare but just this; an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party.
Henry David ThoreauRead
The word 'innocence' means a mind that is incapable of being hurt.
Jiddu KrishnamurtiRead
The mind of the Renaissance was not a pilgrim mind, but a sedentary city mind, like that of the ancients.
George SantayanaRead
There's enough food in this world. There's enough housing in this world. There's enough shelter in this world. There's enough clothing in this world. There's enough teachers, there's enough universities for everybody's needs to be met, and the reasons they aren't is not because of lack of resources. It's because of distribution, and that's the politics of hate, which is why this is a movement against that. It's a politics of love.
Rebecca SolnitRead